


You Either Die a Hero...

by bluemandycat



Series: You Either Die a Hero or You Live Long Enough to See Yourself Become the Villain [1]
Category: Archvillain Series - Barry Lyga
Genre: Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-09
Updated: 2016-02-09
Packaged: 2018-05-19 07:53:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5959501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluemandycat/pseuds/bluemandycat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mighty Mike and the Blue Freak talk two days before their eight-year anniversary.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Either Die a Hero...

**Author's Note:**

> I was struck by inspiration on the subway. also, I needed more fanfic.
> 
> enjoy!

            Mike scans the dark skies for a hint of something, anything. _He’s usually out this late_ , thinks Mike, _so what gives?_ Mike’s not even sure why he cares this much. Routine, he supposes. When you’ve been doing something long enough, you don’t really want anything else. At least in his experience, anyway.

 

            He’s just about to give up and go home, when he sees a flash of blue streak across the night sky. It stops and hovers, and Mike knows that he’s waiting for him. Even though he can’t see that far, he knows that he’s watching him, waiting to see what he’ll do.

 

            It only takes him a couple seconds to fly up to where the figure is. The man floats with his arms across his chest, coolly waiting for Mike to come to him. _Arrogant punk_ , thinks Mike, but he doesn’t voice his thought.

 

            The Blue Freak takes a bow. “Hello, Mike, you look resplendent as ever.” The most Mike can manage is a curt nod. Both of them float in silence, neither one wanting to speak next.

 

            For the thousandth time, Mike looks over his greatest adversary and wonders what happened. A lot has changed since they were twelve, and it shows. The Blue Freak has matured a lot since his days of double-layered t-shirts and blanket masks. He wears a light blue long-sleeve t-shirt and blue gloves and boots, same as he used to, but over that he wears short-sleeve body armor with protective plating over his belly and a large, glowing white “A” on his chest. He wears a real helmet, not just a fabric mask, with reflective blue goggles built in. He wears the same blue cape that he wore when they were twelve, and Mike’s not sure if it’s an aesthetic choice or a visual “screw you” to him.

 

            Finally, the Blue Freak breaks the silence by tilting his head to the side like he’s listening to something. “Mmmhmmm? You don’t say?” he says. He turns his head back towards Mike. “Erasmus has a lot to tell me about you.” _Uh oh_ , Mike thinks, because from the sound of his voice that can’t mean anything good.

 

            “Will you stop talking to that thing of yours? It’s freaky,” snaps Mike, with more force than he intended.

 

            Kyle tilts his head again. “Did you hear that, Erasmus? He’s shit-talking you.” Mike winces involuntarily at the curse.

 

            “Just put it away.”

 

            Kyle turns his head to face Mike again, which hopefully indicates that he’s done. “You know,” he grins, “we have our anniversary in a couple days. Eight years. It’s the bronze anniversary. You gonna buy me something pretty?”

 

            Mike grits his teeth. This isn’t their routine! This isn’t how they remain civil! Kyle continues talking. “Of course,” he says, “that’s only if you’re counting from the day of the Pants Laser. We have a whole bunch of anniversaries around this time, actually. Let’s see,” he counts with his fingers, “a week and a half ago was the anniversary of you coming to Earth. They had a party for that, didn’t they? Then, two days from now is the Pants Laser, when we first fought. That’s what I count from. Three days after that is the encounter with the dirt monster. Two weeks from that is Ultitron. Two weeks from that were the zombies. Two days after that was when we first teamed up.”

 

            “Blue Freak,” Mike says in a dangerous tone, willing him to _knock it off_ , but the Blue Freak keeps going.

 

            “Five days after that was when I got my powers back. But that would be a 7-year anniversary, wouldn’t it? That’s copper, not nearly as important. But then again, copper is much more useful than bronze when you’re building something.” He pauses for a minute, seemingly contemplating the merits of bronze vs. copper. He snapped his fingers, having reached some sort of conclusion, and continued speaking. “After I got my powers back, it was a month before I told you I was the Blue Freak. And it was an astounding _two days_ after that when you tried to kill me.”

 

            Mike grits his teeth. “We’ve had this talk before. I never tried to kill you.”

 

            The Blue Freak laughs. “Oh no, because Mighty Mike is too good a person to even _think_ about murdering someone! It just so happens that when asked to choose between information and my life by Walter Lundergaard, you pick the information.”

 

            “We both know it wasn’t that simple. People’s lives depended on that information, and I trusted you to understand that.”

 

            “People’s lives _might_ have depended on that information. Unfortunately for me, you weren’t willing to call his bluff.”

 

            “It wasn’t my fault. You should know better. You should have trusted me, and known that I trusted you enough to save yourself.”

 

            “I should’ve done this, I should’ve done that. You betrayed me, and you of all people should know that I don’t take betrayal lightly. Not since the Mad Mask.”

 

            The Blue Freak’s voice is tense and flat, and Mike finds he has no defense. He had put the needs of the many above the needs of the few, just like a good hero was supposed to, but that doesn’t really matter to him anymore.

 

            All of a sudden, the Blue Freak cocks his head to the side, like some kind of super powered puppy. “Erasmus says--”

 

            “That _thing_ is not Erasmus,” Mike spits.

 

            “Oh, how silly of me, you’re right. Technically, this is Erasmus II. Because Erasmus I sacrificed his life willingly. You know, like I never got the chance to?”

 

            The words sting, but Mike tries not to let it show. “You and I both know that that’s not the Erasmus I’m talking about.”

 

            “Oh, you’re referring to your partner. Mighty Mike and Erasmus, a winning duo! Nothing could ever separate the two! Except, of course, when Erasmus decides to tell the truth and you drop him the next chance you get.”

 

            “Kyle.” His name slips out before he can even think about it, and Mike swears that behind those reflective goggles, emotion flashes for a second in The Blue Freak’s eyes. “You telling me you were the Blue Freak had no bearing on my decision. I promise.”

 

            “Since when have your promises ever meant anything? You promised you’d protect me when we were in the field. You promised that my actions before our partnership would have no effect on our current relationship. You promised that you cared about me. Look how well all of those turned out.” He shrugs. “You’re just wasting air, Mike. More air than usual, anyways.”

 

            “Kyle, I know you’re under there. Under that mask. I know there’s still good in you.”

 

            “You wanna see what’s under this mask?” Kyle pushes up his goggles onto his forehead. There is definitely emotion in those gray eyes that Mike hasn’t seen in so long. “Take a good long look. There’s no good here. You want to talk about good, about heroism? Heroism was when Erasmus I sacrificed his life to save mine. Heroism was when I lost my powers so you could keep yours. Heroism was when Jack Stanley voluntarily went to be tortured to distract Lundergaard. Heroism was when,” his voice breaks, “Heroism was when Mairi Mactaggert jumped in front of a bullet to save our lives.” They avoid eye contact. Neither of them wants to talk about Mairi, or Jack, for that matter.

 

            “Seems like everyone gets to be a hero except for you, Mike.”

 

            “You were a lousy hero,” Mike growls, and it’s a little too far but they’ve crossed well over into ‘off-script’ territory and he’s so _sick_ of being victimized by Kyle Camden.

 

            Kyle doubles over laughing. “Ouch,” he says, wiping away tears. “Maybe if you had told me that seven years ago I would’ve actually felt bad.” He calms down. “You know that terrible overused quote? ‘You either die a hero…’”

 

            “Or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain,” Mike finishes for him. They’ve both heard it enough times for it to lose it’s meaning.

 

            “Yeah, well, that’s me. Except I was never a hero. So it’s more like ‘you either die a martyr or you live long enough to see yourself reevaluate your priorities.’”

 

            “You were a hero for a year.” It’s tiring, repeating this over and over.

 

            “I prefer to think of that as my ‘Kyle Camden loses his powers and suffers a temporary lapse of insanity when a revered superhero helps him save the day from a bunch of zombies. Once the hero shows his true colors and feelings towards Kyle, he promptly snaps out of it’ phase. A little cringey, don’t you think?” but the insult, tacked onto the end, lacks its usual bite. Mike doesn’t know what to say, and it seems like neither does Kyle, who isn’t as emotionless as he claims to be. They almost read each other’s minds in their desperation to get back to their routine, the one thing that has kept them talking all these years.

 

            Kyle folds his arms, which is the signal for Mike to start their nightly ritual, finally. He holds out a hand and says, “I miss you. I’m sorry,” for the thousandth time.

 

            Mike can practically mouth the words and copy him as Kyle turns to the side and says “How many times must I tell you that you can’t say sorry for trying to kill someone.”

 

            Mike smiles and says, “As many times as it takes you to forgive me.” They’ve been doing this ritual for seven years. Sometimes, Mike wonders how close Kyle is to forgiving him, if at all. Maybe their outbursts means that he’s one step closer to having his friend back.

 

            That’s usually the end of the ritual, and he’s supposed to fly off right about now. But tonight, Mike decides to say screw it, because they’ve yelled at each other enough for tonight, and tack on something extra. “Kyle?” he says, and Kyle turns to look at him. “You know that I’ll never stop loving you, right? I don’t care whether you’re a villain or a hero, I’ll never stop wanting you back.”

 

            Mike can’t tell if it’s Kyle or the Blue Freak that answers him. “I don’t know if you’ll ever get me back, Mike. I don’t know if I can ever be your partner again,” and he sounds so, so tired.

 

            “I understand that. What about frienemeses?” He uses their old portmanteau, which they used to use to describe their pre-partnership relationship.

 

            Kyle gives a wry smile. “It’ll be just like when we were twelve. Me hating you, you not really hating me. Except this time I’ll actually have a reason.” His expression changes. “Maybe someday. Maybe by our next anniversary. Now, just looking at you makes me mad. I have to heal, like I healed after the Mad Mask.” _Except I need longer to recover_ , he doesn’t say, _because I trusted you more. Because you meant more to me and I thought I meant more to you too and even though it wasn’t your fault it’s easier to blame you_. He looks so fragile right now. That’s the worst part of it for Mike. Kyle is one of the few people he has left, besides his parents, and seeing him like this is so much worse than when they were twelve and they could hate each other without attachment.

 

            “I’ll see you in two days,” promises Mike. “For our anniversary.” The words feel foul on his mouth. How can it be an anniversary when they hate each other?

 

            “You going to take me out for dinner? Or are we just going to yell at each other again?” Mike can’t suppress a smile at the thought of going to dinner in full superhero costume, with a man in full supervillain costume. That would certainly get some stares.

 

            “Don’t want to ruin the surprise,” he says, even though he has no idea what he’ll do. Kyle looks a little bit calmer and, if not happier, then returning to normal, and that’s what matters to Mike.

 

            “Eight years of hating each other, what a milestone! Here’s to eight years more!” Kyle grins, and even though it isn’t okay, it feels like they’re going to be okay. And it doesn’t matter that Kyle hates him and that he might go his entire life without being on Kyle’s side ever again, because Mike is willing to support him, even as his most hated adversary, even if he has to ‘reevaluate his priorities.’ And suddenly Mike feels very light, like they’re both twelve again.

 

            “Wouldn’t have it any other way, my archvillain.”

 

           

**Author's Note:**

> comments/kudos appreciated!


End file.
